Memphis to offer free summer camps, more youth jobs

September 21, 2017 - Angel Washington, center, participates in a "twist" game with her peers during vocal practice through the AngelStreet program at Bickford Community Center on Thursday. AngelStreet serves youths in communities where art and music aren't being taught in schools. And African-American girls from North Memphis are using music and singing as a conduit to empowering themselves. (Photo: Yalonda M. James/The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

Memphis will offer free summer camps at its 24 community centers for the first time this year and could also increase the number of city-sponsored youth jobs.

The city has offered the camps to residents in the past — but not for free, Mayor Jim Strickland said Tuesday in a presentation to a City Council committee. He said the camps will cost $200,000 and is in addition to $600,000 in summer programming in 20 city parks.

"We all — administration and council — are trying to reinvest in Memphis," Strickland said. "But we're also planning to reinvest in Memphians."

Strickland said the camps will include literacy education programs to stop the "summer slide," when students forget what they learned in the spring semester. He forecast the attendance this summer at 2,300 youth.

The committee approved the resolution, in addition to another one calling for the city to increase the number of summer youth jobs from 1,250 to 2,000 over the next three years. Both resolutions are scheduled for final council votes in two weeks.

Council member Edmund Ford Jr., the sponsor of the jobs resolution, said he has yet to determine the source of the public funding for the resolution, but hopes for an investment in the program from private sources as well. The city currently dedicates about $2.5 million to summer jobs per year.

Ford said he's already partially funded one of the jobs, which cost the city about $2,000 per summer.

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